The Central Election Commission of Georgia stated that it was impossible to satisfy the applications of the opposition members of parliament who passed in the October 26 elections and demanded not to start the procedure of recognizing their parliamentary mandates.
The opposition coalitions Coalition for Change and Unity-National Movement demanded that the CEC cancel their party lists, which include both elected MPs and candidates who failed to pass to parliament. The coalition leaders said that, according to the law, individual statements from each person on the list are sufficient for this purpose.
“The electoral law does not envisage the cancellation of registration of candidates from party lists before recognizing the credentials of newly elected deputies, neither in the case of an appeal by a party, nor in the case of an individual application,” the CEC said in a statement on its website.
The CEC believes that the opposition is trying to increase pressure on it.
“Despite the fact that the parties involved in the process thoroughly know that, according to the law, it is impossible, they in this matter, as in the case of election assessment, chose the path of manipulation, and thus, probably, are trying to increase pressure on the CEC,” it said.
It also noted that the election administration will carefully observe the law in this matter, as in all other similar cases.
The CEC explained that only the part of the party list with candidates who failed to pass to the parliament can be abolished, and only after the new parliament is assembled and the credentials of the newly elected deputies are recognized. Also after this procedure it is possible to withdraw one's candidacy from the list on an individual basis.
The parties “remove” their lists so that if the elected deputies refuse to give up their mandates, their seats could not be taken by the next deputies from the list.
As for the refusal of the mandate, according to the law, after the recognition of the powers of newly elected deputies, any of them can apply to the parliament with a corresponding application. It is up to the Parliament to satisfy this application or not, the Head of the Legislative Body Shalva Papuashvili explained earlier.
Opposition stands its ground
Opposition Coalition for Change and Unity-National Movement claim that they have all legal grounds to reject seats in the “illegitimate parliament” already now - before the final protocol of the CEC is made public and the XI parliament begins its work.
“The parliament is illegitimate, accordingly, we consider participation in this parliament as complicity in illegitimate actions .... We will not legitimize the parliament by being there,” said Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Coalition for Change and co-founder of the Akhali party.
The party list of the Coalition for Change consists of 82 people, 20 of whom were elected to the parliament.
Gvaramia noted that no one from this list in any way intends to cooperate “with the regime that steals elections and spends the interests of the Russian Federation”.
All of them, with a few exceptions, gathered at the party office and signed statements in front of the cameras for submission to the CEC.
Gvaramia read an excerpt from the statement of the first number one on the list, Nana Malashkhia: “Do not register me as an elected MP and do not issue me a temporary certificate of election as an MP.”
He said that all the statements are correct from the legal point of view, and the CEC and Parliament, in their turn, can start making illegal decisions.
Tina Bokuchava, one of the leaders of the coalition “Unity - National Movement” and chairperson of the former ruling party “United National Movement”, stated that the demand of the oppositionists has a legal basis.
Bokuchava emphasized that a citizen has the right to decide for himself whether to hold a public position or not.
As proof, she cited Article 25 of the Georgian Constitution, which states that “every citizen of Georgia has the right to hold any public office if he or she meets the requirements set by the legislation.”
According to Bokuchava, this article of the Constitution prohibits, against the wishes of a member of the party list, to enforce Article 131 of the Electoral Code, according to which, within two days after summarizing the election results, the CEC registers the elected members of parliament and issues them temporary certificates of election as a deputy.
According to her, all those on the party list of the Unity-National Movement coalition will write individual applications to the CEC so that they will not be registered and parliament will not even begin to consider the issue.
“Already on the night of the elections it was obvious that these elections did not reflect the free will of the citizens of Georgia and accordingly on behalf of Unity - National Movement we announced that we do not recognize the legitimacy of these elections and refuse parliamentary mandates,” Bokuchava said at a briefing.
According to her, there was a “total falsification” of the parliamentary elections.
“The most important principle of the Constitution - on secret balloting - was violated and, accordingly, the free will of the Georgian people was not expressed. There were many other machinations and massive violations,” Bokuchava said.
She stressed that the results of the parliamentary elections in Georgia will not be recognized by the civilized world.
The results of the CEC, according to which the ruling Georgian Dream party won 53.93% of the vote, have been rejected by all four opposition forces that made it into parliament, the NGOs supporting them and Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, claiming total fraud.
The authorities call all accusations of election fraud disinformation. Georgian Dream leaders systematically hold briefings and make comments on each accusation. According to the Head of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili, there is fabrication of pseudo evidence of election fraud.
The majority of first instance courts (22 out of 23) and later all appellate courts accepted the CEC arguments that the folder given to voters along with the ballot paper ensured the principle of secret ballot. After making a choice, the ballot paper had to be placed face down in the folder and, holding it, inserted into the counting machine.
Reprinted from https://sputnik-georgia.ru
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